some pictures and some words

In May of 2014 I traveled to Cuba (legally!) thanks to a research grant from Pratt Institute’s Faculty Development Fund. Since then I co-founded Cuban Artists Network , or CAN! And now we’d like your TAX DEDUCTIBLE donations to help bring art supplies to artists in Cuba.

Also though, today an exclusive peek at photos from my research trip have been released. I traveled with acclaimed LA based photographer Kenneth Scott- and the photos he took are jaw dropping. Please check them out HERE! Scroll down, and enjoy! (And don’t forget to donate!

Very proud of my students who were part of designing the christmas window display for Crocs this year. The international flagship store of Crocs is located on 34th street across from Macy’s in New York City, and this year a talented few artists from Pratt Institute and Parsons were selected to design their display. My students that were chosen were Yueh-tze “Victoria” Lee, and Dean Violante. Their work is below:

…is the title of the newest album by the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet. It is great! But don’t take my word for it. Read about it here, here, or here. GREAT music. And whoa! What’s that? They let me draw all over the album! Front cover! Back cover! Inside on both sides and on the disk too! You got an album surface? I’ll draw on it.

Released by Basin Street Records October 27th! OOOoohhh hello, that’s TODAY! So pick it up HERE right now!

Jason Marsalis is releasing a new album October 27th. The music is awesome! Check it out here! And I did the Album art! Once it’s released I’ll post more images, but it is fun! It is comic book super hero inspired! Check it out! And buy it soon!

I normally limit my blog to talking about artwork, but I want to bring attention to something that I think is important. I play the #TheColbertReport while I’m drawing and it’s great. I love the show. Stephen Colbert is brilliant and a great way to start my drawing day. However, it went to commercial break, and what I saw was shocking:

This commercial is offensive on so many levels that I’m not sure where to begin. Racist and Sexist – few commercials have either, let alone both. It propagates the stereotype that Asian women exist for the pleasure of men- refining their skills of pleasuring. Or, as the commercial actually states, “For thousands of years, the women of Asia have been mastering the Art of the Welcome: warmth and kindness… You can see it in their eyes.. feel it in their smile… Expand your world of dating, with women from Asia”.

First there’s the ignorant lumping together of all Asians with complete disregard to race and nationalities. Because when getting an Asian woman, does it really matter what kind? They all kind of look the same anyway, right? It’s like saying ‘Middle Eastern Women’- hey, Arab, Israeli, Persian, they’re all the same, or close enough. I’m sure they’d feel that way too.

If you don’t know the difference, if they’re just ‘Women of Asia’ you can also lump them together and say that for thousands of years they’ve been mastering the Art of Welcome. Perhaps it is the Japanese tradition of the geisha? Perhaps it was the sex industry that built up around American GI’s during the Vietnam war? Is it a basic cultural misunderstanding: what is social tact in one culture is seen as submission in another? I’m not sure what the stereotype is based on, but it definitely exists. Asian women are thought of as being exotic beauties who are submissive pleasers, there only to love you long time.

Objectification of human beings leads to very bad things. If you can think of someone as a thing, whether it be a pleasing thing or not, you don’t have to value them as a human, or see them as an individual. How are people able to kill? Because we can lump individuals into groups. It’s ok to hate ‘them‘ or kill ‘them‘ because they‘re one of these– they‘re the enemy. So then what happens when you have obtained your Woman from Asia, and she turns out to have her own needs… or her own opinions? What if she, god forbid, has just as many faults as white women? Because she’s a human being too? Uggghhh… that is totally not what you signed up for.

Asiandate.com is not the same as jdate, christian mingle or black singles. Those other sites are geared toward dating within your race or religion. Asiandate.com is open only to men who want to expand their world of dating. The site publishes other videos featuring mostly middle aged white men who have successfully obtained a Woman of Asia. Which makes me wonder too- where are these women coming from?

While I know that mail order brides exist, that sex slavery exists and that women across the world are still subjugated and exploited due to extreme poverty, I was shocked to see such a clearly racist and subjugating commercial on cable tv. #ComedyCentral, this is not a joke. Don’t be part of the problem.

I’ve been busy. Again. Super busy. But came across this old image I created for a science publication while I was trying to make space on my WD passport. It was a fun drawing to create and wasn’t sure if I’d posted it before. So it’s up on my website for now. www.susangyoung.com for more illustrations and stuff!